Star Fox Zero

Star Fox Zero is the most fun I’ve had with any Wii U game to date. The title more than makes up for Fox McCloud’s conspicuous absence for a decade and proves just what a uniquely satisfying gaming experience the gamepad offers when treated as an asset by game designers, rather than a bulky requirement to work with Nintendo’s mascots. It’s beautiful, challenging, deep, addictive, and plays unlike any other space shoot em’ up I’ve ever experienced.

Star Fox Zero is the first game that really exploits the capabilities of the Wii U's gamepad. Its superb controls, great music, awesome characters and breathtaking level design make it a must have to all Nintendo's fans out there. If you were expecting a sequel to the great Star Fox 64, we can tell you that the wait is over.

Despite its poor visuals compared to other recent titles for Wii U, StarFox Zero retains the charm that made the StarFox saga a classic, almost a genre on its own, and implements a new control scheme that uses the GamePad for precise aiming. Full of hidden paths, with a great learning curve, different vehicles, and true "classic" gameplay, StarFox Zero is a MUST if you own a Wii U.

A return to form for the Star Fox franchise, Zero is a winning mix of Nintendo's innovative gameplay and Platinum straightforward, dashing action, but it can be confusing for newcomers. It will be divisive, but it shines.

It's rough around the edges, but it sports one of the best, most interesting uses of the Wii U hardware – it just takes a bit of time and effort for the control scheme to really show its true colours.

Star Fox is back with the best game of the series so far. Fun, frenetic, replayable and with the amazing final battles you can expect from Platinum Games.

Star Fox Zero is hard to master, but eventually the new control system works pretty well. Even if not all the vehicles are equally fun to play, the game is a convincing comeback of a much beloved franchise.

Star Fox Zero is an excellent shoot'em up, but at the same time an intimate tribute to an era where high scores and fun for fun's sake were king. The game offers solid gameplay, good variety and a frantic pace. A title that deserves a place in every Wii U owner's house.

It’s a little sad that Star Fox Zero, a game that wonderfully shows the benefits of the Wii U Gamepad, came out so late in the system’s life. Still, it’s worth getting for anyone who owns the console, especially if you were a fan of the series in the ’90s.

A willfully offbeat shooter with real depth. Awkward at first, but incredibly satisfying to master. [May 2016, p.76]

Fast & furious: the Fox team is back with an old-school shooter that's visually underwhelming, but that's a joy to play (even if the control scheme can be a bit tricky).

Aside from its painfully short single player campaign and “sometimes good, sometimes bad” controls, Star Fox Zero is a very fun game.

Star Fox Zero is a wonderful re-imagining of one of the most beloved games in the series, blending elements from its early history in a tasteful manner. The meatier story mode leaves you with a better sense of fulfillment over its predecessors, and while there isn’t an online leaderboard to compare best times or scores, there are other extras to keep you playing. Adapting to the new controls might take more patience than some players are willing to give, but those who stick it out are rewarded with a higher-degree of precision than previously possible. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s safe to say Miyamoto’s latest experiment is a success.

If you can handle the gyroscope, you’re in for a quality thrill ride through the Lylat System, difficult but rewarding.

Star Fox 64 remains the reigning king of this franchise in my book, but Zero is a great Star Fox game too – if you give it a chance. [Issue #21 – May/June 2016, p.75]

I found it challenging, but rewarding, vibrant and dynamic without being beyond my skillset. I don’t necessarily understand – nor agree – with people criticising the game for trying to be a streamlined dogfight simulation, but at the same time I don’t think this game has nearly done enough to push it forward.

Once you have mastered the new controls, which are only slightly tweaked, it’s a fun experience that new players and fans of the original will enjoy. It’s a shame that the game didn’t make its return earlier in the Wii U’s life cycle as I see it as a pretty decent exclusive title.

A videogame that returns to the origins of the saga without neglecting innovations. A "reboot" of classic Star Fox.

Star Fox Zero is a surprising game that gets better level after level. The unusual control scheme might be hard to master, but you'll soon discover that is the fulcrum for an original and innovative experience, shaped by the creative talent of Shigeru Miyamoto.

The sort of expertly orchestrated action you’d expect from a team-up between Nintendo and Platinum, but the lack of innovation is a little disappointing.

With a focus on replayability, unlockable content, discovering alternate paths, and pushing for higher scores, fans of the SNES original and Star Fox 64 will find that the game has everything they love about the franchise and plenty more.

The additions made to the Wii U title are generous, with the Walker, enhanced Landmaster and Gyrowing each bringing with them different tactics, strengths and gameplay possibilities. The only issue is that while these alternative modes of transport are fun to use in short bursts, the Arwing is much more fun to pilot - especially when you're dashing through enemy armadas or engaging in thrilling dogfights using the game's all-range mode.

Star Fox Zero’s tried-and-true format and style is, at times, its greatest strength and greatest weakness. This is a brand new Star Fox shooting adventure in 2016, complete with fun new mechanics, dazzling HD graphics, and tons of secrets. On the other hand, it too often treads into remake-like feelings of familiarity. The level design is all different and unique, but the locations and the story are nearly identical.

I loved the experience Star Fox Zero provided. I felt my skills improve every time I ran a new mission and I still get cravings to just go back into the game for the feeling it offers of flying and shooting down enemies. It’s extremely disappointing that there isn’t more content to offer above its 20 levels as the Gameplay is incredibly fun for those who take the time to master it. I truly believe this could have been regarded as one of the Wii Us must-have titles, but unfortunately, the limited content and unintuitive controls hold the game back from its potential.

Feels like a return to form for the long-dormant series. The new control scheme courtesy of the Wii U GamePad makes it standout, alternate vehicles like the Arwing’s Walker form change up gameplay from existing predecessors, and the pure challenge present throughout every new area makes this a game that players will come back and jump into at a moment’s notice.

Star Fox Zero is great. It’s loads of fun, even more fun with friends, and I can’t help but recommend it. Another Wii U essential? Well, it might not be for everyone but Star Fox fans will adore it.

It’s a little short and familiar, but forget Adventures, Assault, and Command, this is the Star Fox game that we should have got a long time ago.

While there’s a lot to like about Zero, its gameplay innovations seem sometimes obstructive and the presentation fails to impress in some regards. It’s still a great game, but measured against other timeless Nintendo classics, its shortfalls hold it back from standing in the company of giants.

For a 2016 game, Star Fox Zero’s looks are poor, but that’s because it renders two pictures at the same time: on TV, you see the fighter and its surroundings, while Wii U controller shows the view from the fighter’s turret – and you can move it around to turn the turret itself. It doesn’t impact the course of fighter itself, so you can fly in one side while shooting to another.

It's more like a remake than a new part of the series. Star Fox Zero relies on the old strong points of the series but doesn't offer anything really new.

Star Fox Zero has much of the great franchise mechanics and a good aim system. However, technical issues and some problems with the targeting system are unsatisfactory.

If you are looking for something totally new, avoid this game. Star Fox Zero is mainly a classic Star Fox game, though it does comes with some fun surprises. The controls are not great and the choice in airplanes is slim, but still, this is a pretty cool action game for Wii U.

Star Fox Zero is a nice game, but a bad attempt to innovate with the Wii U Gamepad.

Star Fox Zero’s fun stages and impressive boss fight give me lot of reasons to jump back in and play them over and over, and especially enjoyed them in co-op until I got a hang of juggling two screens myself. I’ve played 15 hours and I still haven’t found everything. Learning to use the unintuitive controls is a difficult barrier to entry, though it comes with a payoff if you can stick with it.

Star Fox Zero is a true Star Fox game, and a joy to play with the new and innovative controls. However the game is held back by the inconsistent graphics, the framerate and short game length.

If Platinum Games is involved, you can expect something exceptional. But with Star Fox Zero this is not always a good thing. Basically the fun and your ability to look behind the outdated visuals depends on how well you get along with the unintuitive control scheme that takes a lot of time to get used to.

Star Fox Zero offers a blend of a familiar story with fresh gameplay experiences and mission variety. The controls are the biggest hurdle for this game and will likely deter a lot of players. Those who stick with it and eventually get the hang of things will be thankful that they did in the end.

A rather halfhearted remake of a true classic, with less focus on the story of epic teamwork than one would have expected. A frustrating release for the fans, but nonetheless a fine addition to the Wii U roster.

Despite the familiarity of the characters and the story, this is strange, exotic territory, and quite like anything else. [June 2016, p.108]

Players that have graduated past the simplistic design of the original Star Fox games won’t find much to bring them back in, but those that still enjoy doing barrel rolls will feel right at home with Fox’s latest adventure.

There are plenty of nostalgic aspects present in this crisp and beautiful high-definition title, reminiscent of games gone by. At the same time it shakes things up with some drastic changes to the game play that can be too jarring for some to want to put up with, making it a bit of a black sheep to many. For those who take the time to master the play style, however, it is incredibly rewarding and satisfying.

I just wish it felt like a cohesive experience and not a bunch of polished demos for different control interfaces. I’ve rarely been as simultaneously frustrated, startled by and, for fleeting moments, exhilarated with an interface. It’s a measure of all that’s right and wrong with Star Fox Zero that you’ll probably have all three reactions as you play.

Star Fox Zero tries new things while trying to stay true to the franchise. The controls are something to get used to, but you'll get over them. What is difficult to accept, though, is the repetitive nature of the missions and the brevity of the game. Such a pity, because deep inside this was such a good game with awesome air battles.

Hearing about how different Star Fox Zero was compared to its inception, it's almost like Miyamoto jettisoned most of the new ideas in favor of playing it safe due to complaints from testers. Even with Platinum's involvement, it's a confusing project that isn't quite sure of itself, wanting to try new things while simultaneously reigning it in. Despite these blemishes, I enjoyed my time with it.

Beyond my issues with the controls, the final boss, and leaning too heavily on fandom rather than redefining these characters for a fresh audience, what bums me out about Star Fox Zero is that for me it lacks the special something that defines a Nintendo game.

There's a lot to like about Star Fox Zero, but those ideas are rooted in games past and the new features muddle the whole thing up.

Star Fox Zero brings the series back in a big way. Taking the franchise back to its roots, while amping up the action to new heights. Unfortunately not everything that was added was perfect though, with the Gamepad controls actually taking away from the experience, rather than adding to it. Once you get past them there is a great game here, but it will take some players quite a while to do that.

Star Fox Zero’s status as a love-letter to the past is solidified. While it does a good job channeling a lot of what was great about Star Fox 64, it fails to really build on it in new and exciting ways, and stumbles because of the Wii U Gamepad.

Star Fox Zero falls short in a lot of ways; but for better or worse, it's still the best game the series has seen in years.

So, Star Fox Zero is a pleasant return for Fox McCloud and his merry squadron, albeit one with a few flaws that stops it from sitting alongside the Wii U's best.

While I don't like the new control scheme, it's a small price to pay to hop into the seat of an Arwing. Though I feel like I've seen most of this adventure before, Zero is a good-looking homage with some new locations to find and challenges to overcome. It doesn't supplant Star Fox 64, but it does its legacy justice.

Star Fox Zero follows the classic structure of its predecessors and tops it off with a new control system that will make or break how the players perceive Nintendo's latest opus in the Star Fox series. It could certainly benefit from a more luxurious visual environment but once its new control system has been mastered, the players will find this new collectables-packed journey across the Lylat system nothing short of rewarding and satisfying.

While Star Fox Zero offers up some exhilarating dogfights with a unique control scheme that actually makes motion controls work, its highest highs are let down all too frequently by repetitive, mundane on-rails segments that sour the freedom that the game gives you in short bursts.

Star Fox Zero suffers from ambition without a cause. A fun, light space shooter has been crippled by a horrible implementation of gamepad controls. [May 2016]

Star Fox Zero isn’t ever bad, but it’s generally uninspired. It’s a musty tribute that fails to add much to the series, aside from tweaked controls and incremental vehicle upgrades. I loved Star Fox when it came out, and I’ll even defend Star Fox Adventures (to a reasonable degree). For now, I’ll stick to Super Smash Bros. when I feel like reuniting with Fox.

Star Fox Zero is a passable reboot/remake of the original but the controls are simply horrible.

Star Fox Zero isn't a bad game - far from it - but it doesn't provide anything new of value to the franchise and it's not as good as the earlier games in the series.

Star Fox Zero tries and fails to blend the nostalgic feel of StarFox 64 with new controls. While the game can be enjoyable and comes with some exciting moments, it is muddled down by unwieldy controls and bland level design.

Star Fox Zero is a game that every fan of the series will enjoy, but its lack of effort and technical restrictions keep it from making the long waited transition to modern gaming.

tar Fox Zero is a good game to play and it’s one many will get stuck into through some frantic attempt to rack up an even greater high score. Just don’t be surprised if that franticness ceases short of what you may have initially come to expect.

The learning curve makes it likely you’ll want to blast through again at least once with your flight skills finally under control. And this is when Star Fox Zero is at its best: a thrilling, fleeting and flawed joyride.

I had a good time with Star Fox Zero, but it feels like a game whose design is built on contradictions; the desire to have the new targeting control, but with the classic Arwing gameplay keeps both from being entirely functional. It prizes arcade-style progression, but lacks modern concessions for console titles, like adequate checkpoints or multiple difficulty levels.

It’s hard to understand why Nintendo committed to an overly complex control scheme, even after the loud criticism that accompanied the development of Star Fox Zero. The game feels better than last year, but while enjoyable for brief moments, it made us hope for a motion-free single-screen option. The nostalgia is all there though, if that’s what you’re looking for.

StarFox Zero is the real followup to StarFox 64. Actually it's more a reboot of it than a totally new episode. It still offers hard-to-master but nice asymmetric gameplay and new vehicles, but it fails to be as surprising and as good as its model was in 1997, which is quite disappointing... without mentioning the graphics. Nostalgic fans will probably love it, though the others should be warned.

As much as there is to love in Star Fox Zero, sadly the awkward controls of various vehicles, and the horrendous forced second viewpoint and gyroscope targeting of regular Arwing and Landmaster stages almost ruin the entire experience.

Sometimes great, sometimes rough but mostly patchy, Star Fox Zero is depressingly mediocre. Fox and the gang deserve much better next time around.

It's a game that doesn't have the courage to be itself, so it throws every half-baked design idea it has at you instead. Next time, Nintendo, listen to the rabbit: trust your instincts.

Star Fox Zero is a decent but unspectacular return of a once great series, and is held back by forced motion controls and some questionable level design.

As a game that lives and dies on its mechanics, Star Fox Zero is only intermittently successful at selling its dual screen dynamics. It’s at its best during the classic Arwing sections, but the Walker form becomes overly fiddly and the different viewpoints often cause more problems than they solve. Sadly it’s somewhat fitting that one of the final Wii U first-party games still doesn’t convince us on the viability of a dual-screen home console.

The sad part is that Nintendo nearly always nails the controls in their games, and it's disappointing to see them fail here. As such, while I did enjoy seeing the sights and blasting enemies to bits, Star Fox Zero is far from perfect.

Star Fox Zero is a frustrating experience because it has the potential to be a great game – a fantastic game, actually – but fundamental flaws not only hold the game back, they make it downright unplayable at times despite relatively easy fixes.

StarFox Zero is torn apart between traditions and modernity, here embodied by PlatinumGames. Both were probably compatible but Nintendo's will to make the GamePad something essential to the gameplay mechanics definitely kills all the other good ideas around.

As fan service, it does a solid (if a little lazy) job of hitting all the right notes, it’s fun in brief moments, but we’ve seen far too much of it before in previous games. True fans have been waiting so long for a proper sequel that it’s hard to not walk away disappointed.

A bit too short, a little fiddly and a little less than invitingly re-playable to recommend to many more than the concrete fans or curious WiiU owners intrigued by the last hurrah of a dying platform.

The simple, enjoyable rail shooting of Star Fox 64 has in Star Fox Zero been replaced by contrived and obscure hardware gimmicks. A few decent levels salvage the overall experience to a small degree.

As a game, Star Fox Zero isn’t so much broken as deeply and disappointingly lacking in inspiration. Shiny but not smooth, it’s a game about a space-faring fox in a spaceship that turns into a chicken without any sense of joy, and that might be the biggest disappointment of all.

On a visual level Star Fox Zero looks great, and it has several really interesting ideas. Sadly the controller scheme is so frustrating that it ruins almost everything. And that’s really is too bad because it would have been a great nostalgic trip for fans of Lylat Wars/Star Fox 64.

There is a good game somewhere inside Star Fox Zero, but its forced reliance on the Gamepad's screen and motion controls cause it to barrel roll right into mediocrity.

All of this would have been welcome in the early 2000s, but the years of disappointing follow-ups and the overall progression of industry standards leads to Star Fox Zero having the impact of an HD rerelease rather than a full sequel. Being able to beat the game in 2-3 hours doesn't help, no matter how many branching paths or lackluster challenge missions are included. Even the moment-to-moment action doesn't have anywhere near the impact that it had almost two decades ago, as this limited style of gameplay feels dated in 2016.

I know that the company gets a lot of flak for rehashing its material, but if Star Fox Zero is Nintendo’s idea of innovating an established franchise, I hope that this is their final attempt to prove that motion control wasn’t just a fad.